W. Va. is Enduring a Budget Crisis Like that of the Great Depression

In a conference call with the press on Friday, Department of Revenue Cabinet Secretary Dave Hardy said West Virginia revenue collections for the month of January came in about $18M short of state estimates.

In other words, he said the state essentially took about an 8 percent pay cut.

"Most of it is caused by the drop in energy prices. But we also had a downturn in some of our other industries," he explained.

The consumer sales tax was the largest source of the drop in revenue, followed by the personal income tax.

7 out of 12 months into the fiscal year, the state is $116 million short of revenue estimates. But Hardy predicts that will grow to as much as $123 million before the end of the fiscal year in July.

Hardy says will lawmakers return to Charleston for their annual legislative session next week, they'll have to quickly find money to fill this year's budget gap before they can move on to balancing the 2018 budget.

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In 2013, Governor Tomblin chose to expand the state’s Medicaid program, providing healthcare coverage for 150,000 more West Virginians. Up until this point, Medicaid expansion has had no impact on the state’s budget.

On this West Virginia Morning, we get the latest on why the 2017 budget has not been completed, even though the 2016 legislative session has ended. We also hear from Liz McCormick about health-outcome rankings for West Virginia counties.

If you are a healthcare provider in West Virginia today – a dentist, doctor, counselor, therapist – and a Medicaid patient comes into your office for treatment, you might not get paid for seeing them. Or the payment will be delayed for…well you don’t actually know how long the payment will be delayed.